1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to networked content distribution and more specifically to a distributed XML transformation system and method.
2. Introduction
A system for networked content distribution at a large scale typically comprises multiple classes of content publishers and of content recipients. For example, a company may have a local area network where hundreds of employees are communicating with the network and distribute content to each other in a variety of different formats. The network may be any network such as the Internet, a wireless network, virtual private networks (VPNs) and so forth. An example of the challenge may be that a person generates a document in a format such as PostScript® and emails or communicates the document to a set of persons via the network. A recipient may not have means to view the postscript document. For example, a recipient may have a word processing application such as MSWord and not be able to view the postscript document.
Another example relates to communication between a webserver and a wireless device such as a personal digital assistant or smartphone that can achieve access to the interne. The smartphone is a mobile computing device and commonly contains a much smaller screen size than a laptop or desktop computer. This presents a challenge when a person using a desktop computer desires to publish data or a document over a network to the web recipient (other delivery methods in addition to the web are also contemplated) where the recipient has a reduced screen size for viewing.
Yet another example relates to content that is created in various formats, such as any of a plurality of XML format schemas that is to be transmitted to content recipient. Each recipient may have different software or a different operating system and may not be able to view or take advantage of features of the content in the published format. Further, each recipient or the publisher may have no method of controlling how the content is created to be transmitted. Details of the XML format are known to those of skill in the art. As an example, U.S. Pat. No. 6,748,569, incorporated herein by reference, provides some background on the use of XML.
There are many different types of content that may be distributed over a network by content providers. These may include graphical, text and video and multimedia presentations in various formats. What is needed in the art is a system and method of enabling the easy communication of content between content publishers and recipients of the content. Further what is needed is a system and method of enabling both publishers and recipients of content to control how content is transformed between publishing and reception.